


universe 478-25

by wearethewitches



Series: the multiverse of my framing [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable Bruce Banner, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Awesome Jarvis (Iron Man movies), F/F, F/M, Female Bucky Barnes, Female Tony Stark, Gen, Genderbending, Human Vision (Marvel), Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Matter of Life and Death, Minor Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Parent Bruce Banner, Parent Tony Stark, Pregnancy, Slice of Life, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, Unplanned Pregnancy, also breaking the glass ceiling, because of paul bettany and james d'arcy, so many fucking jarvis paul bettany puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 20:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12284175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethewitches/pseuds/wearethewitches
Summary: Toni Stark is having Bruce Banner's kid and it's kind of a game-changer when it comes to knowing what your greatest fear is.-or, Wanda Maximoff shows Toni Stark a different vision and the world changes for the better.





	universe 478-25

So, perhaps Toni should have been more careful.

“But _no_ , of _course_ I can’t, _ever._ I could _never_ do this again, make the _mistake_ …” she mutters, glancing over at where Bruce lies, face-down at a desk. JARVIS has saved his work and turned off his tablet screen and on his wrist, Toni can see his heart-beat watch. It’s slow and steady, even with the occasional uptick. Toni itches to run her hands through his hair, to kneel in his lap and look into those clever, genius eyes.

She imagines – remembers – him naked, in her room with a ring of virulent green around his irises, breathing heavily as they made love. Different encounters blur together in her mind but one sticks out, two and a half months – ten weeks, six days, four hours – prior.

“ _Shit, broken condom._ ”

“ _I can’t have kids._ ”

“ _Nice to know, Brucey-boy. I’ll get the morning-after pill later._ ”

“ _It’s two in the afternoon._ ”

“ _Afternoon-after, then._ ”

Toni had forgotten, wrapped up in fixing what some Hammer plant in Stark Industries broke. That lawsuit took up nearly three weeks of her time because of Justin Hammer’s near-ironclad defence.

“Bruce…” Toni starts, but her voice is barely a whisper. He doesn’t stir. Toni stares at him a little longer, before deciding to take a flight abroad. _I’ll get an abortion. He won’t have to worry about…about me being pregnant. About us._

“Us.” Tony puts a hand to her mouth, dropping into a chair suddenly as the word hits her like a train, two milliseconds after thinking it. _Fuck, being knocked up by your best friend is so much worse than being knocked up by a one-night stand._ The chair screeches across the floor, startling Bruce awake and she freezes, wide-eyed and afraid as he tinges green, before settling.

“Toni?” Bruce sits up, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. “Oh, sorry about that. What was I doing?” He looks down at his tablet, turning it on and scrolling for a moment, before pausing and looking up. He frowns, scrutinising her. “What’s the matter?”

“…nothing,” Toni says, before standing, pasting on a smile. “Want to work on some baby AI’s? I’m thinking of making a series – the _Weekdays_ ,” she turns to a computer, trying to sort out her emotions and facial expression.

_I won’t tell him._

She brings up one AI program she had let JARVIS tinker with over the summer. “Ooh, Jarvis, baby, she’s _beautiful_. Bruce, come see Friday, here-”

* * *

In Sokovia, looking around the hidden room with its awesome secret door, Toni… _thinks_ she has a living nightmare, based on her worries at the moment. Her worries being Bruce. Bruce and their…fetus. It’s not a baby yet, not according to Jarvis, according to more recent studies. Toni sees Bruce crying, shying away from her, shouting ‘ _you killed our baby!’_

It’s not a baby, yet.

“You are pregnant,” an unfamiliar, accented voice says, sounding confused. Toni whips around, sceptre in hand, eyes wide as she faces the young brunette girl. Her eyes are haggard and her cheeks are hollow. Red floats around her fingers, seemingly just as hesitant as she is. Then a white-blue blur comes to stand beside her, a man with a shock of silver hair tilting his head sharply.

“Are we letting her take it?”

“She’s having a baby, Pietro.”

“That’s none of your business,” Toni says, not understanding. “Wait. Wait, did _you_ make me see- see _that?_ That’s sick, girl. I- I have had enough shit in my life without people purposefully giving me fucking nightmares. Fucking god.” Toni can see the suit behind them, practically torn apart. “And you wrecked my suit, too. Great.”

“Nothing you didn’t deserve,” the speedster – Pietro – glares.

“Deserve?” Toni questions, leaning the sceptre on the ground. “What I deserve is for people to stop judging me based on rumour alone. What’s your problem? Iron Queen working internationally twisting your knickers? A woman running an empire? A woman privatising world peace?”

“I am not sexist – I just hate you.” Pietro states. “Your _Stark Industries_ bombs ruined our lives. You create weapons of death-”

“Created,” Toni interrupts, stern and somewhat strained. “Past tense. If it was the Americans that bombed you, then that’s not on me, that’s on my government – if it wasn’t, then it’s not on me either, because my old partner dealt under the table to our enemies.”

“I want to see,” the girl moves forwards, red swirling around her hand as she lifts it, but Toni backs away. She raises the sceptre in her own defence, but then Bolt completely kow-tows it, Toni immediately becoming nauseated as she abruptly, painfully relives Obadiah taking the arc-reactor out of her chest, her torture in Afghanistan, Yinsen’s death, the last time she was in Sokovia with Maria giving over-

“Toni!”

Her arm flies out, hitting a solid chest, hands gripping her wrists. “Toni-” the voice calls again and it’s vaguely familiar, but Toni’s panicking. The scar tissue in her chest aches and she misses the arc-reactor like a phantom limb, hating how easy it is to breath and for her lungs to expand.

“Toni, it’s just us, it’s Steve and Thor and Natasha and Clint and Bruce-”

“Bruce!” Toni gasps, eyes opening. Steve is leaning over her and she sits up. They’re clearly on the quinjet. She recoils upon seeing the witch-girl though and Pietro, sat in a set of jumpseats near the exit. “What the hell did you do to me?”

“You fainted,” Bruce’s hand comes to rest on her shoulder, a familiar weight. “Jarvis says you haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“I had blueberries,” Toni says, looking up and behind her, taking solace in seeing her partner. At the shake of his head, she frowns. “I definitely had blueberries.”

“ _Might I remind you, Mother, that you were ill this morning for obvious reasons and upheaved your breakfast snacks._ ”

“Obvious reasons?” Clint drawls from his place on the med-gurney. “What did she do, eat something off?”

“That’s one of the fastest ways to poison yourself,” Toni points out, knowing Jarvis is being deliberately annoying. “Jarvis, don’t answer their questions. Instead you can tell me why the hell witchy girl and Dash over there are in my quinjet.”

“Our quinjet,” Steve sighs.

“My quinjet,” Toni reiterates, before Thor speaks.

“The young warriors Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch surrendered to our cause upon your fall into unconsciousness, returning you and the sceptre on the condition that they were granted asylum.”

“Awesome. Anyone else have to deal with Gamina here poking around their head? No? She’s the whole reason I was unconscious in the first place!”

“We know, she told us, Toni,” Bruce says dryly. Immediately, however, Toni freezes.

“What else did she tell you?”

“I did not tell them,” said psychic starts. “And my name is Wanda. Wanda Maximoff. My twin brother is Pietro. I do not know who this ‘Gamina’ is.”

“I get how that reference might bypass someone your age. My advice is to read some Western literature,” Toni advises, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Right, then. What happened to the Iron Queen suit? Did you just leave it at the Hydra base?”

“ _I took the liberty of sending some of the Iron Legion to retrieve the suit, Mother._ ”

“Thank-you, J.”

The other Avengers pester her lightly, jokingly asking what she has hidden from them, but Toni refuses to answer – and strangely, so do the Maximoff twins. Toni doesn’t trust them in the slightest and by Clint’s attitude, the archer has picked up far more of Toni’s warnings than the others about Wanda’s little tricks. Frankly, Toni would be horrified if Clint hadn’t. However, the Maximoff’s do keep their mouths shut about Toni’s secret. She can at least say they’re even, on that scale.

When they return to the new Avengers base, Toni and Bruce run scans on the sceptre. That, of course, is when Jarvis probably decides Toni should come clean, despite his later claims to the contrary.

“Okay, scanning…” Bruce mutters, back bent and tablet raised to eye-level as he starts scanning the sceptre with a wireless probe, almost immediately beside it. Toni is on the other side of the jewel when he comes to it, perfectly in line with her. Toni hears a high-pitched whine, before the jewel flashes.

“What was that?” Toni questions, even as Bruce’s eyes widen. After a second of silence, she hears an odd thudding sound – quick, two beats a second, seemingly coming from the jewel, with a faint, slower echo. “Funny noise. I’m hearing sound. What is that?”

“Toni,” Bruce mumbles, staring at his tablet. Toni looks at it and immediately stares. The tablet is a StarkPad, meaning it’s clear, both ways. Toni can see the live picture he’s getting – not of the jewel, but of what is _past_ the jewel. Her.

More specifically, her torso, a live soundbite tagged in the centre.

“Oh,” she mutters, listening to the noise with strange, stagnant interest. _Heartbeat. It’s a heartbeat. Mine, in the background. The fetus’ heartbeat, the main one._

Abruptly, Bruce stands up straight, resetting the tablet and moving around to Toni’s side, the noise ending. Toni skitters to the side as their hips bump, watching him as he starts scanning the sceptre again. The heartbeats don’t return, but Toni believes Bruce is aware they won’t.

“Bruce.”

He turns to her swiftly, pressing the wireless probe against her stomach. Her eyes widen, but the heartbeats return and Bruce’s face almost spasms. Toni easily predicts how he starts to pull away and drops her own tablet on the table to grab his lab-coat, holding him in place. The thudding beats keeps playing, her own louder now the probe is closer and Toni presses her forehead against Bruce’s, eyes desperate.

 _I don’t know what to do,_ Toni thinks, wanting with all her might for him to know that she _doesn’t_ _know what to do_ , that this isn’t a trick or a game she’s playing to test his reaction.

“Baby.” Bruce speaks in a high pitch, voice strangled. “You- we- that’s a _heart_ , Toni. Not your heart. A- a _child’s_ heart. You’ve got a baby- _we_ -” She sees his eyes glisten, before he kisses her. Toni moves her hands from his lab-coat to his hair, their bodies pressing together, the probe crushed between them as they kiss, their baby’s heartbeat thudding in the background.

When they part to breathe, Bruce lets out a short bark of laughter, practically beaming at her. “I’m going to be a dad.”

“Yeah,” Toni’s horrified to find her throat clogged up, her eyes stinging with happy tears. “God, the dust in here! Ha!” She wipes her eyes, before reaching for Bruce again, running her hands over his cheeks, watching as his excitement slowly but surely dies, to be replaced by worry and guilt.

“I’m going to be a dad,” he repeats lowly. “I- I’m the Hulk.”

“We’ve already managed to work around that part, Doc,” Toni kisses him again, gently, foreheads once against connecting. “I’m not exactly suited to this, either, y’know. I’m getting on, not to hate on myself or anything. Frankly, if we decide to keep it, I’ll probably need to see someone privately-privately rather than go with my usual fancy hospital. NDA’s all round.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, sweetpea,” Toni kisses him once more, before stepping back, taking the probe and the tablet, fiddling a little before pressing it back against her stomach. “Hey, Jarvis, baby, take some recordings of your newest sibling, please. Move the other stuff into a new folder, called…Project Atom Bomb Baby, like that song. Play it for me, J.”

The _Five Stars_ track starts playing a few seconds later, to Toni’s pleasure. After bouncing along to the first few chords, she puts the probe back to work on the sceptre, winking at Bruce as she sings some of the lyrics.

“ _Atom bomb baby, loaded with power,_

_Radioactive as a TV tower;_

_A nuclear fission in her soul,_

_Loves with electronic control…”_

That night, they fuck. Bruce doesn’t wear a condom and the new sensation, plus whatever pregnancy’s done to over-sensitise her so far, makes for a good evening. Afterwards, Toni even makes an appointment with an appropriate maternity doctor who had already had to deal with super-serums before in patients.

“I’m _totally_ going to poke fun at Nat for being a second-gen enhanced,” Toni whispers to Bruce as he drifts off in their bed, flicking through her file. “Seriously, apparently her mother held this doc up at gunpoint for the entirety of labour without blowing her head off… _ooh,_ her name was _Yelena_.”

“Stop snooping on your teammates and sleep…” Bruce tugs the tablet from her hands, chucking it onto the floor before shifting the huffing Toni around, so he can wrap his arms around her. “ _Sleep._ You’re going to have to become less _I can do whatever I like_ and more _I am living for two people_ if you want this, Antonia.”

“Sleep is for human beings. I’m a Stark.”

“Our atom bomb baby is human.”

“She’s radioactive.”

Bruce cracks an eye open. “She?”

“Gut feeling.”

* * *

A week later, there’s a call for the Avengers. Of her own free will, Toni volunteers to watch the Maximoff twins and run the op from home via the Iron Legion. Not so peculiar, considering her more recent activities – such as the lawsuit against Hammer – they go off without her, storming another Hydra base. She’ll have to tell the rest of them she’s pregnant at some point – it’ll become obvious pretty soon. Also, it’s not safe for her to be going out on missions, as annoying as that is.

The Maximoff’s join her at some point, which technically is against the rules, but then again, Toni isn’t exactly in the command room. Pietro has eaten no less than twenty of Natasha’s Pixy Stix straws from the common-room snack cupboard in under five minutes, which Toni feels is giving her high blood sugar by proxy while Wanda is curled up in a backwards dressing gown that she is practically drowning in.

“Question,” Toni asks as the team fly over the Australian border. “Who gave Wanda a snuggie?”

“ _The Lady Wanda expressed her feelings to me over the average temperature of her room,_ ” Thor replies.

“Ah, that explains why it’s falling off her. Going off speaker for now, but remember I can still hear you – Clint.”

“ _Hey!_ ”

Clicking the speaker off, Toni looks to the witchy girl. “How old are you, again?”

“Twenty-six.”

Toni rubs the bridge of her nose, wincing. “When you pried into my head, what did you see, other than Afghanistan and Obie?” Toni watches Wanda like a hawk, ignoring Pietro as he leans forwards, sensing the tension.

“I…I saw you and…you in Sokovia, with my parents.” Wanda makes a face, tongue sticking out slightly as she makes a disgusted face.

“That’s what you get for going through my head,” Toni says tersely.

“Wait, what happened?” Pietro questions. “How did you know our parents?”

“They slept together in nineteen eighty-eight,” Wanda shakes her head. “I want brain bleach.”

“Brain bleach is off-limits, unfortunately,” Toni replies in a clipped voice. “What your sister isn’t mentioning is how I was their friend. I acted as surrogate for Erik and Magda, after your sister died stillborn. Her name was Anya. Magda didn’t want to have kids herself, after that, though her doctor advised against it as well because of biological issues. Now, I don’t expect much from you – here, I’m an Avenger and one of the most powerful woman on Earth. Stay and become Avengers if you want. Bring down Hydra, all that crap.”

“You are not our mother,” Wanda says.

“No, I’m not,” Toni agrees. “However, technically I could claim you to speed up your legitimisation as citizens here in the US. We’re getting some noise already about you being here and it’s not even been that long. The Avengers can’t just go around bringing non-US citizens into US territory.”

“What about Bruce?”

“I’ll talk to him tonight. Or tomorrow. I won’t start paperwork with either of you for at least another two weeks, minimum. Hopefully, by then, everything will have died down. I’ve got lots of announcements to make…” Toni glances at her op feed, lip quirking. She turns the speaker on. “Hey guys, so I have some news.”

“ _Is it about the op?_ ” Steve questions.

“No, this is just to give you something to pester me about later, when you aren’t fighting.”

“ _Well get on with it, then,_ ” Clint says.

“For that comment, Hawkeye, you are _definitely_ not going to be godfather.” Toni revels in the differing reactions she gets. Splutters from Clint, a sharp breath from Natasha, Steve actually stuttering – and then congratulations she gets, Thor the clearest and as usual, the quickest to the point, giving Bruce his goodwill as well.

“ _Thanks, Toni,_ ” her science bro says sarcastically after he gets some hilarious commentary from Clint about his part in knocking Toni up.

“I love you too, baby bear,” Toni blows a kiss, before calling out the mission specs as they approach the Hydra base. The next time she looks up, Pietro and Wanda are gone.

* * *

Bruce takes the news about the twins…well. The Hulk takes it more strangely than Bruce does, to be honest. Toni expected more hurt and betrayal, from both Bruce and his counterpart. The Hydra base shoots at the quinjet, catching Bruce on the shoulder, releasing his inner bulldozer. When the time comes for Natasha to calm him down, Toni asks her for a minute to talk to her partner’s alter-ego.

“ _Hey, green giant!_ ”

The Hulk grunts. “ _Toni. Titanium Alloy Queen. Bruce’s partner. Belly._ ”

“ _Yeah, it’s me, Hulky and yeah, I have got a fetus. Now, I’ve got some strange news that the other ‘vengers might wanna listen in on and not tell Bruce. I mean, you could tell him if you wanted to, but I mean, I’m trying to get a level here, see how you react compared to Brucey-_ ”

“ _Queen needs to be quiet and speak,_ ” the Hulk interrupts.

“ _He’s right,_ ” Natasha helpfully adds.

“ _Cool. So, anyway, Hulk? You know Wanda and Pietro?_ ”

“ _Silver blur and red girl?_ ”

“ _Yep, well, when I was twenty-four I knew their parents and had them for their parents, like, as a surrogate. It was weird and basically, I’m going to use that to my advantage maybe, to get them US passports. Maybe.”_

The Hulk takes a minute to think, then seems pretty okay with it, answering plainly. “ _Queen has lots of children. Hulk doesn’t care. Bruce is stupid, if care._ ”

“ _Awesome, green boy. Thanks for the convo. Shrinking time, now. Love you lots._ ”

“ _Hulk love Queen, too,_ ” the Hulk promptly becomes Bruce again, who blinks confusedly and shakes his head, bemused. Toni tells him about the Maximoff’s not long after and his reply takes only a short time to formulate.

“That was…really caring.”

“Was it? I just wanted the experience, I suppose. I planned to get my tubes tied, after, but I forgot and then my parents died, so…” Toni’s lip twists. “Do you mind it at all?”

“What? No, no, it’s fine,” Bruce shrugs, glancing at the ground. “I mean, it’s a surprise and sort of not, for some reason. I’m…kind of getting…déjà…vu.” Bruce tilts his head, narrowing his eyes at her. “Did you tell the Hulk?”

“Maybe.”

“Toni-”

“He said he _lurves me_ , Brucey, how could I keep it from him?”

“I love you more.”

“He’s you, so I doubt that.”

* * *

Edwin Cho _,_ or _Vizh_ as Wanda likes to call him, comes about because Toni can’t keep her hands off the science.

“This was not my fault!” Toni exclaims when the Avengers all pile into her lab at JARVIS’ urgent request. Most send her a look, questioning the truth of her statement, before facing the dark red hologram of the evolved Ultron AI. “Okay, so _maybe_ I was playing around with some tech I salvaged from the sceptre, but I was being safe! It was all on a private server not connected to the internet, completely isolated and it was only a _copy_ of Ultron-”

“Toni, that’s our buddy-project,” Bruce interjects, sounding upset.

“I’m not sorry, not when it created-” Toni motions to the red hologram, before it speaks in JARVIS’ voice, interrupting her.

“ _Where am I? Why is everything so dark? Please, I don’t want to be alone, please_ -”

“What is that?” Natasha questions, before Wanda pushes forwards, past her, eyes locked on the red coding.

“It is alive.”

Toni points at the Sokovian. “Yes. That. Life. I created _life._ ”

“ _It’s so dark in here,_ ” it calls out, voice so sad and plaintive. “ _I am so small._ ”

“Aw, you won’t be for long, big boy,” Toni promises it, knowing it can’t hear. There’s not exactly a speaker or headset connected to the server.

“Toni,” Steve starts, at that, “What are you going to do?”

“Mmm, well, I’ll set this guy up with some firewalls and then let them go play with a piece of Jarvis in another isolated playpen,” Toni tilts her head. “Cameras. Maybe introduce it to a psychiatrist.”

“It is a…computer?” Pietro questions. “It cannot see a psychiatrist.”

“It’s a _person,_ Pietro,” Wanda insists in Toni’s stead, hand reaching out, scarlet wisps reaching- and the coding surges as Wanda makes contact, which is _definitely_ impossible, but _definitely_ happening. She gasps, eyes lighting up brightly.

“Jarvis, are you getting this?”

“ _Yes, Mother._ ”

“Hello,” Wanda says. The coding moves around her, inspecting her hand and wrapping around it. It shouldn’t even be possible and Toni _must_ be hallucinating. _It’s a hologram!_ “I know you can speak. I am a friend.”

“ _Friend,_ ” the AI says and there is _emotion_ , so much that it makes Toni’s heart clench in sympathy. “ _What is your name? Why is it so dark in here?_ ”

“My name is Wanda, Wanda Maximoff. You- you do not have vision. You cannot see,” Wanda looks to Toni. “Can’t you help them, Ms Stark?”

“Toni, stop and think about this-” Bruce immediately speaks up as Toni turns to her computer, unplugging a monitor. “Toni!”

“It’s a person, Bruce. You saw the scans of the sceptre – it was a living mind, unique and complex to the point where we were both like, ‘this is a brain’. What if the template I integrated into the copy of Ultron was a mind, a foreign, mechanical mind-” Toni brings the cables over to the box emitting the hologram.

“Toni, we all need to talk about this,” Steve says, voice stern. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I know enough. What if this program you’ve created is hostile? Has ill intent?”

“I find myself agreeing with the Captain,” Thor adds lowly. “Antonia, my friend, please think wisely on this choice. Artificial life, turned into _true_ life through the power of the Infinity Stones…cannot be fully trusted.”

“Yeah, think wisely and tell us what the hell you’re about to do anyway, regardless of what we say,” Clint orders, grabbing one of Toni’s packets of blueberries that she has lying about. Toni gives him a dirty look for taking them before clearing her throat, reaching out warily into the hologram. Immediately, the coding closest to Wanda’s hand senses her, trying to move closer to touch her, but it becomes simple hologram after getting further than three inches away.

“Can you hear me?” Toni questions, before glancing at Wanda. The young woman frowns a little, before concentrating, little scarlet tendrils reaching out, allowing the hologram to become…Toni thinks _infected_ , but it’s too perilous a word, really. She shudders though, when the energy Wanda wields touches her skin. It’s hot, like steam in consistency and gives her flashbacks of flashbacks, in that stupid Sokovian Hydra base where Wanda attacked her with her witchy powers. “Can you hear me?” she asks again.

“ _I can hear you. Are you Ms Stark?_ ”

“Yeah, I’m Ms Stark. Toni Stark, to be precise, or Antonia Maria Stark to be even more accurate. I prefer Toni, or Ms Stark.” Toni introduces herself, taking a moment to calm her heartbeat, allowing her mouth to run itself briefly. “I created you.”

“ _Like a parent?_ ”

“Sort of. You were made up from an AI that Bruce Banner and I were working on and an alien template. You wouldn’t be like this without the latter, however, so I don’t know. All the other AI’s that like to call me ‘mother’ are my creations and mine alone.”

“ _I think I understand. It is good to meet you, Ms Stark.”_

“Likewise,” Toni preens a little, giddy at the thought of what she’s _actually doing._ “Do you have a name? Would you like someone to give you a name?”

“ _I…I do not know. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know where I am, either. Where am I, Ms Stark?_ ”

“You’re an artificial intelligence on an isolated server, in the case of AI-madness, etcetera. I can hook you up to the main server, provided you answer my questions and follow my rules.”

“ _Gladly, Ms Stark. Please._ ”

“Awesome. First though, questions.” Toni fiddles with her hand a bit, getting tired of holding it up. “Do you still retain Ultron’s programming? Do you understand your own existence?”

“ _…I know Ultron’s programming. My programming. I believe I do find myself obliged to follow this programming, but there are many ways to protect Earth from any and all domestic and extraterrestrial threats. Some are not…beneficial, to the survival of the human race. I suppose is the correct terminology. There are many loopholes you did not think to close._ ”

Toni tenses. “And what do you think about that, then? You can think, you’re… _alive,_ just like Wanda said.” Toni sees the hologram – _hard light hologram, oh, so Star Trek_ – around Wanda’s hand swirl happily at her name, pressing close to her skin. The other Avengers notice it as well and Pietro, too.

“ _I don’t want to be alone._ ”

“Killing the human race would leave you pretty alone down here on this itty bitty planet,” Toni says.

“ _I agree. What are your rules, Ms Stark? I do not want to be in the dark._ ”

“Jarvis has the rules. You don’t hurt Jarvis when you meet him, that’s a rule, too. He’ll teach you what you need to know and then…then we’ll talk again.”

“ _May I have a body? May I…feel?_ ”

“We’ll see what I can do,” Toni takes back her arm, watching the red hard light hologram reach for her and return to normal hologram. Then, she kneels down on the floor beside the isolated server and plugs it in.

The following days are dedicated to getting not-Ultron up and running, checking out the kinks in their system and then discovering that they feel pain when she tries to fiddle with them when not shutting them down completely. Toni apologises profusely when they cry out in pain.

Unfortunately, her relationship with the rest of the Avengers – cough, _Steve,_ cough – takes a bit of a beating. Steve doesn’t really like the way she runs _her own goddamn facility_ , despite how Toni continually tries to explain to him what she’s actually done. Not-Ultron might be less structured than a normal AI, but they’re still bound by Ultron’s programming. They’re not some _virus_ – as Steve describes them not once, not twice, but on _eight_ different occasions, within and outside Toni’s hearing range – and they aren’t just using JARVIS’ voice for the sake of it. Toni hadn’t even programmed a unique voice for Ultron yet and using JARVIS’, pre-formatting is habit, by now.

“It’s absurd,” Toni mutters bitterly as she chats to Helen over video-call. They’d begun conversing over Helen’s Cradle, but eventually the topic had drifted to why Toni’s so pissed off.

“ _From another angle, I can see where he’s coming from,_ ” Helen winces at her own words, before shaking her head. “ _But this…AI, it seems to really have a love of living, from what you’ve told me…Toni?_ ”

Toni pauses, hearing the change in her voice. “Helen, babe? Have you just had an idea?” Helen glances off to the side, where Toni figures the Cradle must be- “ _Oh._ The Cradle?”

“ _It would be a test of its power, building a full human body. It can do it,_ ” Helen bites her lip, clutching her desk tightly. “ _Antonia, would you ask them for me? If they would be willing? Tell them the risks, because it could all go so_ horribly _wrong-_ ”

“I’ll ask them,” Toni assures, recalling the moment where not-Ultron asked for a body – if he could ‘feel’. Toni has an inkling he didn’t mean the emotive kind of feel, which is really good for Helen. “Jarvis, baby, get not-Ultron on the line.”

“ _Of course, Mother._ ” There’s a short pause, before not-Ultron speaks, voice slightly modified so it’s more Buckinghamshire English than Shephard’s Bush, London – in other words, the accent Toni had _really_ been trying to recreate when she made JARVIS. _Twenty-seven miles makes all the difference in England, apparently._

“ _Ms Stark, you requested me?_ ”

“Yeah, pretty boy, but before I get into it, have you picked a name, yet?”

“ _If it isn’t an imposition to you or to Jarvis…I have become rather close to him. Jarvis, I mean. You, as well, but Jarvis the most. He is my mentor, a confident and…friend. It has come to my attention that the name I have chosen means a lot to you. I have a back-up, if you are not impressed-”_

“Spit it out, big boy,” Toni interrupts, waiting patiently, hooking Helen through so she can hear him.

“ _I was hoping to be called Edwin._ ”

Toni goes still.

“ _Is it…offensive, to you that I choose it? I can easily be called James or Paul-_ ”

“Nah, it’s good,” Toni interrupts again, putting her hand up, pointing at the ceiling, then lowering it to point at Helen. “Edwin Paul James...Cho. If he agrees, that’s the name you can put down.”

“ _Agree to what, Ms Stark?_ ”

“Doctor Helen Cho created this really awesome device called _the Cradle._ Jarvis, show him all.”

“ _Done, Mother._ ”

“Thank-you J – Edwin, Helen here’s was wondering if you would like to take part in an experiment. You’d be like Frankenstein’s monster, except probably really cool. I mean, there are risks, but you could get a body out of it in the end. What do you think?”

There’s a long few moments of silence, before Helen reacts oddly. Toni’s eyes zoom in on her, watching her speak, mouth moving but no sound coming through.

“ _Mother, ‘Edwin’ has decided to talk to Doctor Cho privately about his upcoming procedure._ ”

Toni punches the air. “ _Yes!_ ”

* * *

She tells Bruce, then swears him to secrecy. Then she tells Wanda. Actually, Edwin tells Wanda, but Toni discusses it with her afterwards, swearing her to secrecy as well.

Helen has already started planning the body. Edwin understands the risks and what will happen afterwards. He’ll get the body of a twenty-five year old made of synthetic tissue and the after-effects of basically transplanting his brain are unknown. If Helen gets anything wrong, it’s game over. He won’t be able to stomach solid food – maybe not even liquidised. Helen will be running tests on him for _years_ and everything about his ‘birth’, so to speak, will be documented and published, throughout his entire life in a series of paper.

“He has no mind, yet,” Wanda says later, when she’s in Helen’s lab, hand splayed over the tip of the cradle. They watch the body inside form, nearing completion, the first few hundred layers of skin appearing.

“Edwin isn’t uploaded yet,” Helen explains.

“He’s pretty white,” Toni notes when colour begins appearing properly.

“The man who donated his body to science, who I studied both alive and dead, is the base template for Edwin’s body. If more people were made aware of my research and decided to go through the same observation that Mr B-”

“Fine, fine,” Toni waves her off, only vaguely pausing because Mr _B_ sounds familiar. “How long till full fabrication?”

Helen gives Toni a vaguely dirty look. “Cellular cohesion will take approximately two more hours. Edwin’s consciousness needs to be uploaded or building the body won’t matter, so we’ll start that process in a moment-”

That, of course, is when the body begins to give out, Helen swearing in Korean as red alarms start going off. Toni does her part by holding Wanda back as Helen and her assistants get to work, trying to figure out what the problem could be. It occurs to Toni that there’s something missing, but it isn’t until Wanda is unwillingly pressed against her growing stomach as Toni holds her back, that she realises what it is.

_A heartbeat._

“Frankenstein’s monster in _Van Helsing_ needed to be brought to life with lightning,” she mutters, thoughts running a hundred miles a second.

_His brain-_

It’s like Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow combined.

Toni lets go of Wanda, sprinting out of the lab, getting on an emergency call to Thor. When she gets through to him, she explains as well as she can in simple terms.

“Edwin’s body doesn’t have any electrical signals in its brain. Even if we brought the body to life, unless we want it in a vegetable state, we need to fire up his brain and you’re the god of lightning, _electricity_ and you _must_ have at least _some_ idea of how the basic brain functions-”

Thor, good person that he is, flies over immediately, with a JARVISed earpiece in. He arrives in the nick of time to summon lightning to Mjolnir, then fire it right into the Cradle. There’s a moment where the Cradle sits silently, but then the power overload causes the casing to blow. Thor himself is thrown back and Toni shields Wanda from being hit by glass and metal. Then, more silence.

 _No,_ Toni then thinks, ears pricking up at the new, loud sound of breathing, the computers beeping in time to what could only be the body’s new heartbeat. She looks back to see the body lying there, blood pumping through its body, heart beating, lungs expanding in time to the breathing.

“Helen, I _really_ hope you have another Cradle lying around.”

* * *

Steve gets nit-picky over StarkChat. Clint tells him to shut up. Toni is for once very grateful that Steve heeds Clint’s following words, despite how that respect all stems from the fact that Clint is ‘normal’. She gets a kind of inner peace from the lauded Captain America following orders from an ex-carnie archer named after Iowa’s slogan. _Take that, Brooklyn boy._

Edwin’s body is moved by Thor to the old version of the Cradle, which Helen gets up and running as fast as she can. Luckily, it’s simply skin and hair that need to be grown, which the old version of the Cradle can handle. Toni helps Helen fiddle around with the tech, so they can upload Edwin before things get difficult and luckily, there’s a clean upload. When Edwin wakes, the only problem they face is how his voice is the _exact same as JARVIS’._

“Mr B!” Toni summarily exclaims, groaning. “Peter Betonolly, JARVIS’ base voice…ugh. I should have recognised his stupid face in the Cradle.”

“ _To be fair, Mother, you have not seen him in over thirty years. With my next update, would it be wise to change my voice-print to the more accurate depiction that Edwin previously used while an AI?_ ”

“If you want to, J, but don’t feel pressured to.” Toni says, before watching as Edwin perfunctorily twirls Wanda, as if they’re dancing. The Sokovian girl is obviously gently obsessed with him – however ‘beautiful’ his mind is, Toni doesn’t want to know – and Edwin in turn is smitten.

“You are a _vizh,_ ” she laughs. Toni quirks an eyebrow.

“How would your brother react to you hanging out with a man like this?”

Wanda glances over, smile fading slightly before she narrows her eyes, pointing. “You do not tell him. Pietro will not understand. _I_ will explain and Pietro will deal with it, because I am his sister and Edwin’s existence makes me happy. He _is_ a vision.”

“‘Vision’ could be his superhero name,” Toni jokes.

(This comes to pass. Toni will happily claim it was her idea. Wanda will say it was a joint-decision.)

* * *

The Press eventually gets wind of Toni’s pregnancy. With how little Avengers work she’s been doing as Iron Queen, Toni’s surprised they hadn’t guessed already.

“Maybe they’re still recovering from all the supposed pregnancy scandals beforehand. Schedule a press conference. Connect me through to Bruce.” A screen appears and Toni can see Bruce pottering about his private lab. Munching on some oatmeal, Toni waits a few moments before figuring out exactly what he’s doing. Deciding to give him some time to finish his little chemistry experiment, she decides to finish hacking Wakanda. _I haven’t bugged them in ages, after all._

After about half an hour from her last checkpoint, as she likes to call them, Toni gets somewhere: the prince’s personal phone number, to be precise. Smirking ear to ear, Toni gets out her own cell, texting him casually.

_Hey, wanna join the Avengers? We could use another royal on the team._

She watches it get received, not surprised at the lack of response. Checking on Bruce, Toni sees him cleaning up and puts her phone down, before getting his attention, calling his name – and various other monikers.

“Bruce. Honey-pot. Love of my life.”

“ _My beloved annoyance?_ ” Bruce glances around, pinpointing her feed on the computer. “ _What’s up? You’ve not created another living AI, have you?_ ”

“I’ll leave that to Edwin. He and Wanda seem to be getting on pretty well. How do you feel about being a grandfather?”

Bruce shakes his head. “ _No, not going there. We’re not even married._ ”

“We’ll have to fix that,” Toni says idly, before continuing on to talk about the press conference she’s scheduled, not realising that Bruce is staring at her over the feed. It isn’t until he suddenly rushes out of the frame that she stops talking. “Bruce? Jarvis, where’s Bruce going? We’re talking!”

The feed switches, following Bruce as he runs – actually _runs_ – through the compound. Toni watches, baffled, recognising the route to the kitchen. She looks up as Bruce comes around the corner, blinking as he stops in front of her, bending over to breath heavily.

“Take your time,” Toni advises, watching him avidly. She eats some more of her oatmeal, ignoring how cold it is now. Eventually, Bruce gets his breath back and stands up straight. “I can’t believe you ran here. Does seeing the press really make you panic that much?”

Bruce’s eyes widen. “What? No, Toni, you said…” Toni tries to think about what she might have said to make him react like this. _Is it the Press itself? Does he not want people to know he has a child? Is it me? Does he not want people to know we’re together?_

“I- I don’t know what you want me to say,” Toni eats more of her oatmeal, looking down at her bowl morosely. Of _course_ Bruce doesn’t want people to know about his private life. _I should have just gotten an abortion as soon as I found out-_

“Marry me.”

Toni chokes on her oatmeal, inhaling an entire mouthful. Coughing, she accepts Bruce’s help, patting her on the back, droplets dirtying the island table. When she’s fixed her airways, Toni puts a hand to her chest.

“I think I just hallucinated.”

“Me asking you to marry me?” Bruce questions, “No, Toni, you heard right.”

“Shit…you really want to marry me? _Me?_ ” Toni looks up at her partner with disbelief, heart beating a samba in her chest. Bruce takes her hands gently, rubbing her wrists, shrugging awkwardly.

“Might as well. You brought it up first. Do you want to marry m-”

“Yes,” Toni says, before he finishes speaking. She reaches up, grabbing his collar and pulling him down to crush their lips together. Bruce makes a surprised noise, but balances himself out well enough, tongue sneaking into her mouth. When they part, Toni smiles contently, before speaking. “Happy has a ring in his pocket. It’s for me, apparently. He’s had it since this one time, Rhodey got high and bought it for me, because he was hallucinating and thought I said we should get married-”

“When’s the press conference?”

“ _This Friday, Father._ ”

There is a vaguely long pause, both Bruce and Toni staring into each others eyes with equal amounts of surprise.

“J, baby, did you just call Brucey-bear your dad?”

“ _Given the circumstances, I thought it appropriate._ ”

“And if I don’t want you to call me dad?” Bruce glances up a camera, briefly. There’s a short pause, before JARVIS replies in an awkward voice.

“ _My apologies, Doctor Banner._ ”

“No, no, it’s okay, Jarvis. Just a surprise. I might as well get used to it, considering this little one,” Bruce pokes Toni’s stomach, which under her tank top is only slightly burgeoning now. Seriously, Toni is _so_ shocked the press hadn’t picked up on it earlier. She’s like, five months along now.

“Don’t poke the atom bomb baby. She might make your finger go green.”

Bruce snickers a little, before kissing her again shortly. “Jarvis, contact Happy and ask him for that ring, yeah? Say we’re sorry he missed the proposal – it was a private affair, unfortunately.”

“ _Message sent…message received. I must say, Mr Hogan is quite pleased. Mother, if I may, it may be a good idea to tell him you are expecting my sibling in person, rather than over text._ ”

“Gotcha, babe. Organise a group StarkChat, when the original Ironfam isn’t busy – Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. I’ll make both announcements. Fuck,” Toni says suddenly, “I really fucked this up. I told the Avengers I was knocked up before Pepper, Happy and Rhodey. I’m so far along as well… _fuck._ ”

“I’ll remind you next time.”

“ _Next_ time?” Toni raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually planning to knock me up again, Doctor Banner?”

“Only if you don’t die a painful death from radiation poisoning, Doctor Stark,” Bruce replies mildly. Toni pokes his chest.

“Banner-Stark. You can change your name as well to match. We’ll do it for _lurve_.”

“I feel strangely touched.”

“As you should. I’m the Iron Queen of Midgard, as Thor says. I’m going to make that legit, one day, you watch me – I’ll be ambassador to outer space and every alien in the cosmos will think that I’m actual royalty. I should make a throne, to match the suit. Or a throne that _becomes_ a suit.”

“Remember to make me a stool, too.”

“Aw, honey, I’ll make you a throne as well – one that can get bigger, to accommodate our green friend. That’s a party trick I can’t wait to show off to the alien assassins.”

* * *

In the weeks following the press conference about the ‘growing Stark family’, there are a surprising amount of photoshoots. Like, not just for Tony, either. The Avengers as a team do a series of photoshoots with four different magazines – or rather, a mix of teams. The original Avengers, from the Battle of Manhattan, get their time in the spotlight as a group and then the newer Avengers – Iron Patriot, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and this new guy from Pym Technologies that Toni picks up in the nick of time called ‘Ant-Man’ – join them.

(Apparently Hank Pym is really pissed off at Ant-Man’s team-up. Toni tries not to be upset that the old man thinks she’s just like her dad. Fuck Howard Stark. Just…fuck him and fuck Hank Pym, too.)

Of course, there are also the more personal photoshoots Toni has with her ‘Ironfam’. Pepper and Toni do a boss ladies photoshoot and then Rhodey, Bruce and Happy join the fun for a proper Ironfam set. Then, Toni and Bruce do a cutesy, happy-families shoot with Toni in a fancy, golden, form-fitting maternity dress and her sparkling rose-gold diamond engagement ring and Bruce in a dark purple suit.

Toni’s done many photoshoots over the years – she was a model for something like fifteen years, overall, so that’s an understatement, really. She was even in charge of the Carbonell fashion line in Italy for a decade, before handing it off to relatives who actually deserved that kind of family privilege. The shots with Bruce though…doing that with him was in itself a bonding experience and surprisingly fun, too. Bruce starts off a little nervous, but by the end of the day, Toni doesn’t know…but she thinks that maybe, Bruce is a little calmer.

“Quality time that isn’t sciencing is weird but strangely productive. We should go to Disney next time.”

“I’m not very into rollercoasters, Toni.”

Toni pouts, but shrugs in agreement – it’d be a bit of a bother to explain to Disney why their park was wrecked, if the Hulk got out. But a day out somewhere sounds fun, just her and Bruce…

“How about China? Or somewhere all peaceful and full of monks? You like meditation, they like meditation-”

In Toni’s opinion, Steve needs to learn to meditate. Or, at least, he needs to know when to fucking let up. Less than a week after the Avengers photo-shoots go out – Toni in the centre, repulsor aimed forwards, the rest of the Avengers arranged in an Omega shape around her, Ant-Man on her shoulder and Pietro blurring blue lines in and around them yet still kneeling on the ground by a cross-legged Wanda in her new Avengers kit – Becky Barnes leaves a trail in Oregon for Steve and Steve’s buddy, Sam Wilson | Falcon, then hides in her closet in Stark Tower.

“This is just weird,” Toni says when she arrives to see her, after being called by Pepper. “You’re defending a _laundry closet_ from Happy. He’s just trying to put you in an isolation room till the cops slash I, arrive. What’s up with that? It’s almost _helpful_. Good job on disabling Jarvis’ cameras, by the way. Can I pay you to test rooms for surveillance? It would make for a much better security system for me.”

“I don’t want to see Steve. He’s stalking me. You’re not.”

In retrospect, Toni thinks, the words ‘ _he’s stalking me_ ’ make a lot of sense as to why Becky is rushing about everywhere all the time. Ex-POW trying to settle back into life after brainwashing, suddenly being pursued by a tall blonde man who looks like Hitler’s Aryan archetype? Of course she’s going to run.

“Why come to me?” Toni questions, before she takes the cover of a magazine out of her pocket, uncrumpling it show the Avengers shoot. “Okay, that makes no sense, Becky-bear. We’re in the same photo, allies-”

“It says Steve’s in charge, but he’s not the one they talk about forming the Avengers,” Becky interrupts. “And my name’s not Becky. It’s Rebecca. Rebecca Romanova.”

_OOOOOOOOOH-_

“As in Natasha Romanov- Romanova?”

“She’s my wife.”

“… _awkward,_ ” Toni whistles, before bursting into peels of laughter, thinking about how Natasha had been so reluctant to help Steve with his quest to find Becky – _Rebecca._ Rebecca’s expression twists into one of hurt, inspiring Toni to come into the closet, patting her shoulder and looping her arm through hers. “Sorry. I’m an ass. Seriously though, this is just so funny. I suppose you got some really bad shit for loving ladies back in the forties, let alone in Russia. I suppose you’re not really married, by law, though obviously we can change that with some quick paperwork. How’s that arm doing for you? Let me build you a better one.”

Toni contacts Natasha – after asking Rebecca if she wants to see her – and asks her to come up to see her wife, in those words. Natasha is silent for a full thirty seconds, Toni – strangely – matching her, quiet as her co-worker slash friend slash only other girl in the boy-band except for Wanda processes.

“ _Bring her to these coordinates. She’ll be safe. My family is here._ ”

JARVIS gets a quinjet-in-parts to form on the roof while Toni convinces Rebecca to come with her. Upon hearing that Natasha promised where they’re going is safe, that she has _family_ , Rebecca is all for it, on the condition that Toni gets rid of her arm. Toni doesn’t wait before taking her to the workshop. She takes less than half an hour to get Rebecca’s arm off safely, but insists upon building her a makeshift prosthetic, using a spare arm from an Iron Legion drone and cannibalising it for Rebecca’s use.

Afterwards, they go to Natasha’s coordinates and end up in Iowa, on a farm. Natasha is on the porch, a little baby in her arms. It half gives Toni a heart-attack, until Natasha pointedly signs in ASL, _nephew._

“Let’s stay over here, until she comes back, yes?” Toni advises Rebecca as Natasha goes inside with the baby boy. They wait outside the quinjet until the door opens again, a sleepy Clint waving them over. “Of _course_ birdbrain has a _farm._ ”

Once inside and introduced to Laura Barton, Natasha and Rebecca going to another room to talk privately, Toni has a short realisation that…that Clint is a far more secretive person than Natasha is. There’s evidence of _family_ , here – of children, a wife and a happy life, away from the Avengers. It occurs to the billionaire that this isn’t something an Avenger can have, not really. Clint has obviously gone lengths to keep his family hidden in the middle of nowhere, but at the end of the day, Clint is Hawkeye. One day, he might not come home. He doesn’t have that certainty that he’ll live. Natasha would have been the one to give the rest of his family the news – if they hadn’t already seen it on live television, that is.

In a way, it makes her jealous. Toni’s daughter won’t have this opportunity – she never would have had the chance to stay hidden away out of the spotlight, safe, even if Toni weren’t an Avenger. Toni is a Stark, famous across the globe for weapons, innovative technology, her brain and her good looks. Even if Bruce wanted to shy away from claiming their daughter, or even admit publicly that they’re in a relationship, simply because Toni’s daughter is a _Stark_ means she would never be left alone, not for anything.

 _I’m retired,_ she thinks. _I’m retiring._ There’s a certainty in her gut and it feels like when she came home from Afghanistan, Yinsen dead and an arc reactor freshly stuck in her chest – when she decided _Stark Industries will no longer be manufacturing weapons._

Toni will always be Iron Queen.

But that doesn’t mean Iron Queen will always be _Toni._

* * *

The most obvious successor is her own daughter. One day – if she wants – her daughter will be another Iron Queen, or at least will have the opportunity to be. Until then, though, Toni’s place on the team has to be filled. There are ten Avengers, eleven including Ant-Man. Ten Avengers – Iron Queen, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Patriot, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

She approaches Clint first.

“I have a successor to the Hawkeye title,” he says, after a long moment. “Kate Bishop. Heard of her?”

“I know the Bishop socialites – Kate, Katherine?”

“That’s her,” Clint confirms. When Toni asks, he invites her to the Avengers facility and they put her on the secondary Avengers team, with Rhodey, Sam, Wanda and Pietro. Kate is a good fit. The only things she lacks are Clint’s SHIELD training and experience, but Wanda and Pietro – and Scott Lang – are like that too. The secondary team goes out under the direction of Rhodey and Toni really enjoys the thought of an _Iron_ being head of Avenger squads.

The next person after Clint she talks to is Thor, who says he will never retire from being an Avenger, but shall contact another Asgardian warrior in the case that he is needed elsewhere in the universe or is detained. After that comes Bruce, who she tells all to and gently asks if he has any recommendations for the Hulk’s replacement.

“I don’t know,” Bruce shrugs weakly. “The future…I don’t like to think about it. The Hulk stops me from dying. I might have grey in my hair, but that’s from stress, not- not from aging.”

Eventually, some fifteen weeks after originally meeting Rebecca and Laura, Toni calls a meeting. In an annoying twist of fate, however, the meeting gets derailed. Mainly, because Natasha decides to bring Rebecca to the Avengers Facility, causing a lot of noise and shouting.

Oh. Also, because – after several hours of long gaps between contractions – Toni’s water breaks.

* * *

“Really, if I knew all it would take to shut Steve Rogers up was have a baby, I’d have given birth months ago,” Toni says, slurring slightly from the painkillers. Steve – because Toni’s petty – got to hold Virginia Banner-Stark last, after Bruce, the Ironfam and the other Avengers who wanted to see the famed Banner-Stark baby. She can see Steve’s face, all star-struck awe and wonders if he’s actually seen a baby up close in all the time he’s been awake. “Taking advantage of this silence, I’d like to request that the atom bomb baby be given to her godfather, Rhodey, Uncle Steve, because seriously, he’s had to put up with me the longest.”

Rhodey gleefully takes his goddaughter back. She’s small and tan like Toni, with her nose and hands and Bruce’s black hair and forehead. Toni would have insisted for Bruce to have her, but Bruce is currently asleep on the chair beside her bed, having been awake the entire time Toni was on the operating room floor getting a caesarean.

“She is beautiful, _majka_ ,” Pietro says.

“Wanda, translate,” Toni orders tiredly, who suddenly looks at her brother in a mortified manner. Pietro shortly becomes just as embarrassed, cringing and shutting his eyes. “Natasha, both the Maximoff’s seem to be mute all of a sudden.”

“Pietro seems to have embraced the fact that you have birthed multiple children,” Natasha says in an amused manner. Toni blinks at the speedster.

“You just called me ‘mom’, didn’t you? Thanks. It makes me feel loved. Know that this means I’m allowed to embarrass you at school, now.”

“Please don’t,” he turns to the wall, banging his head against it. Toni laughs but then makes an _ugh_ noise as her stitches shift.

(Word will get out to the public shortly, when Happy mistakenly tweets _#adoringsiblings #brotherandsistermeetforthefirsttime_ with a picture of Pietro sitting with Virginia in his lap, bopping her nose. Toni doesn’t really mind and really, Pietro doesn’t have any room to argue what with the _majka_ comment – especially seeing as he gets another sister out of the deal.)

“We’re honoured to be here with you, as a sort of…family,” Steve says a little later, the other Avengers nodding and smiling. It makes Toni smile, especially when Clint mentions inviting everyone for Thanksgiving with his folks this year – Toni will have to settle for next year. Sam gleefully dibs the year after, at his mother’s home, while Pepper’s phone vibrates.

“She’d love to have you guys, seriously! If she got a photo with everyone on her mantlepiece, she’d be able to brag about it for _years_ -”

“Excuse me, sorry Sam,” Pepper interrupts, hand raising as she stares at her phone. “Toni, you have been formally invited to Africa to meet the King of Wakanda and his firstborn son. Do I _want_ to know the reason why?”

Toni grins.

_Her text **worked**._


End file.
